Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest soared 22% in a year to the highest level since 2006, the government's annual report showed on Thursday, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro's assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging.
Brazil's space research agency, INPE, recorded 13,235 square kilometers of deforestation in the world's largest rainforest in its PRODES satellite data, an area nearly 17 times the size of New York City. The official deforestation data covers a period from August 2020 through July 2021.
The surging destruction comes despite Bolsonaro's efforts to show his government is serious about protecting the Amazon, considered critical to staving off catastrophic climate change.